Humor and Fear look a lot alike, as
far as the body reactions go. Laughter is an expression of surprise. So, too,
is a scream. The difference? Watching Curly hit Moe with a shovel, and watching
a cat jump out of a darkened recess in the space ship when everyone is looking
for the alien. Those two scenarios are considered miles apart. But something
really interesting happens when you start moving them closer together.
The Horror-Comedy
movie (or, if you prefer, the Comedy-Horror movie) is one of those rare,
fragile and delicate kinds of movies that is very tricky to pull off without
tipping the scales one way or the other. It takes only a nudge to turn a
comedic horror movie into parody, or worse, a self-referential meta-movie that
becomes insider baseball. Likewise, if you’re not funny enough, the laughs will
be more of the nervous variety than the knee-slapping kind. Not that there’s
ever any real belly laughs in a Horror-Comedy movie. It’s more of a
sensibility; not quite a slice-of-life motif, but the best of their kind manage
to use a combination of setting and dialogue to keep you rooted in the story,
rather than overwhelm you with gags.
